By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared their gains to end essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.
Gold hit a record high as the safe-haven metal benefited from looming U.S. election uncertainties.
Technology shares, particularly chips outperformed after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, beat earnings estimates and forecast a jump in fourth-quarter revenue, helping to ease fears of softening demand in the sector.
“By far the biggest contributor to today’s rally is TSMC’s upward guidance, and that the much-telegraphed semiconductor slowdown associated with potential oversaturation of AI is not emerging, at least in their order books,” said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia.
“So that leadership from the semiconductor space, when it hits the largest-cap companies, is going to push the headline indices higher,” Green said. “That, and the response to retail sales data,” has added support to U.S. stocks, Green added.
The S&P 500 closed nominally lower and the Nasdaq ended the session slightly higher, giving up earlier gains driven by a stronger-than-expected retail sales report, and jobless claims data that landed below economists’ estimates.
Growth shares outperformed value, while regional banks were ahead of the pack in the wake of upbeat earnings from M&T Bank, KeyCorp and others.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161.35 points, or 0.37%, to 43,239.05; the S&P 500 fell 1.00 point, or 0.02%, to 5,841.47; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 6.53 points, or 0.04%, to 18,373.61.
European shares rallied, closing within 1% of record high levels after the European Central Bank implemented a broadly expected 25-basis-point interest rate cut, while offering scant clues regarding its next move.
The move marked the ECB’s third rate cut this year as the central bank has shifted its focus from reining in inflation to shoring up the EU’s sputtering economy.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.21 points, or 0.02%, to 852.43. The STOXX 600 index rose 0.83%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 17.82 points, or 0.87%. Emerging market stocks fell 8.88 points, or 0.78%, to 1,135.16.
U.S. Treasury yields gained ground after data suggested the U.S. economy is on solid footing, but left the Fed with enough room to move forward on a slower path to lower rates.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 8.2 basis points to 4.098%, from 4.016% late on Wednesday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 9.8 basis points to 4.3972% from 4.299% late on Wednesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 4.8 basis points to 3.983%, from 3.935% late on Wednesday.
The dollar touched an 11-week high after retail sales data beat expectations, boosting confidence in the health of the U.S. economy.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.24% to 103.79, with the euro down 0.3% at $1.0828.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.41% to 150.23.
Crude oil prices edged higher as investors juggled developments in the Middle East conflict and falling U.S. inventories with sturdy economic data.
U.S. crude rose 0.40% to $70.67 a barrel and Brent rose to $74.45 per barrel, up 0.31% on the day.
Gold prices hit a record high on firming expectations for additional rate cuts from the Fed and mounting uncertainties surrounding the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.
Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,691.97 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore and Alun John in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)
